Bill Dixon, Chairman of the Jury, presented the prestigious DAME Award 2014 at the commencement of METS this morning to the Steering Traveller from Jefa Steering ApS of Denmark. The jury praised the product for the way it offers a genuine solution to chain/wiresteering. In addition to this overall winner, six category winners of the DAME were also announced during the Breakfast Briefing, the official start of METS 2014 which will be held until Thursday 20 November in Amsterdam RAI.

In its comments the Jury stated that it is “always on the look out for clever design solutions that challenge the status quo to deliver obvious improvements for boat owners and builders. There were several examples this year but the standout entry was the Jefa Steering Traveller. This product removes the need for bulky steering quadrants and improves rudder feedback at the helm for twin rudder, twin wheel sailing yachts. Special attention has been paid to save installation space and weight as well as to eliminate backlash, which improves yacht handling.”

Jefa's elegance overrode the strong field of entries

The Jury appreciated the elegance of Jefa’s approach to this application, describing it as a commendable example of how current practice can be examined and redesigned to produce tangible improvement. Commenting on a strong field of entries, the Chairman of the DAME Awards Jury, Bill Dixon, observed that it is commendable to see so much product development at a time when the marine industry has been experiencing a long period of constrained budgets.

“Developing new, well designed and innovative products is very difficult for relatively low manufacturing volumes,” Dixon commented. “Nevertheless many of the companies that we recognised in this year’s nominations have looked at a problem, found a new and interesting way to solve it and come up with a confident solution. Others have discovered ways of making the boat builder’s life easier though better integration and ease of installation.

“Simple, elegant design with cohesive integration is the future; this is the challenge that the DAME Awards will continue to address by highlighting the achievements of the best entries.”

Wispy threads of morning mist rise slowly skyward off the unwavering water revealing a glassy expanse under sparkling sunlit skies. The smooth,still surface creates a canvas reflecting the surrounding landscape, mirroring every twisted tree and carved rock in an unnerving, almost hallucinatory manner.

Welcome to another simply glorious day at Bayfield Inlet on Georgian Bay.

Just to put it in historical time warp I was a World Sailing Vice President 1976-1994 and President from 1994-2004 representing Canada and the RCYC as well as Olympic Technical Delegate from L.A. 1984 - Athens 2004.

World Sailing is now going thru a major reassessment of Olympic Classes where the major focus is on "Technology" not "Talent". (Editor’s note: the daunting expense of newer boats like the 49er prohibits many sailors from participating.)

The Four Winns H290OB combines two of the most popular new big boat trends to come up with a great new 30 footer. It's a luxurious and spacious deep-V day boat that can handle big water and big groups, and it's powered by outboards. In this case, two Mercury Verado 300s gives this boat 600 hp of silky smooth, ready to run power.

The H290 has been available for the past three seasons as a twin-engine stern drive powered boat, but the outboard version is brand-new and it's a home run for sure!

A thin breeze skittered across the Gulf of Maine, and a low cloud ceiling stamped-outany moonlight, making for a darknight aboard my dad’s J/44, Southern Cross. My wife and I were standing watch with nothing to look at, save a few distant lights. While my wife enjoys excellent vision, I suffer from severe red-green color blindness that makes it hard to determine if I’m looking at bow and stern lights, discreet vessels, or both. Given that in August of 2006 Automatic Identification System (AIS) wasn’t yet widespread amongst recreational craft, we spent the next few minutes trying to discern the nature of the scene before consulting the radar, getting on the VHF, and waking our captain.

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